Hey Now!

Look at us, movin' on up!

Little did we know, we were on the list for Apartment Therapy's Homies!

First, we don't have to shower in the basement anymore and now this!

Things are lookin' up!

If you want to vote, click here.

Then scroll for like two days and there we are : )

Voting ends March 2nd.



Recent Adventures

Remember when I said that this last part of the bathroom remodel involed a lot of waiting around for stuff and searching for little odds and ends? Well, this past week a couple of those odds found their end and we got to visit some pretty neat places along the way. First stop, bathroom mirror town.

Remember way back in October when we went searching for a bathroom mirror out in Marion at Bearly Makin' It Antiques and lucked out when we got this great frame for $8?

And then remember when I got it home and took this really bad picture of it?

I kid.

But serioulsy, since them we'd kind of been casually looking for a big piece of old mirror to put in it. Since the sink is working now and we can brush our teeth and wash our face in the bathroom like real people instead of the kitchen we were really starting to need a mirror. A couple of weeks ago my mom suggested we measure the mirror in an old (nasty) medicine cabinet we had removed from the downstairs toilet when we moved in. FYI: We removed it because it smelled so bad it was making the whole downstairs smell. For real. So we measured it and it seemed like it would work. We carefully took the medicine cabinet door apart and removed this amazing and very heavy piece of mirror.

On the back of the mirror was this stamp.

Which would have put this mirror about 10 years or so after our house came on the scene. We were thrilled. Not only did it look like it would fit in the frame but it was also already in our house (Free!) and it was from around the same time that the house was built.

We called a great local company, Bell Mirror and Glass here in Wichita and asked if they would cut mirror.

We took the mirror and the frame down to their shop so they could have a look. They were honestly the friendliest people I've ever dealt with and they even took the time to show us how they were planning to cut the mirror and they told us a little about how old mirrors were made. I dropped it off on a Friday and it was done early Monday morning. The results speak for themselves. I could not be happier with it.



We lost a little of the silvering on the back when we were hanging it (that stuff is fragile!) but I think it gives it even more character than it already has. This picture also gives you a look at part of our second adventure in recent weeks, a trip to an antique store in Ark(ansas) City, Kansas to try and find some chrome cross handles like the ones in our shower for the sink there. We were coming up empty handed all over the place when my mom suggested a day trip to a place called Mylissa's Garden. It did not dissapoint. We took one of the handles from the shower with us and showed it to the woman who works there. She crawled back into a tiny space and pulled out basket after basket of antique faucet handles. After a little searching, we found two that matched perfectly. Success!

I cannot stress to you enough how unbelievable this place was. I could spend days looking through everything. Days, I tell you!

Yes, that's the only aisle and yes, it's only wide enough for one person to go through at a time. Some people would start having a panic attack looking at this but I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

And there you have our beautiful handles to our wierd little sink. $3 each

I'm going to post a video of our sink in action very, very soon I swear!

I also picked up a waste basket for $5 at Mylissa's. I wanted something like this one from High Street Market. This is what I got:

And after a coat of my favorite spray paint ever, Oil Rubbed Bronze...

This was the finished product. I really like it and I really liked the price!

I think that brings everything about up to speed. We still have a couple of accessories here and there and of course, the cabinet which I'm about to go start working on here in a minute. Stay tuned!

Still Kickin'

Don't worry guys! The house didn't fall over, the tub didn't fall through the floor Money Pit style. We've just been extra busy putting all of the final touches on the bathroom. A lot of those final touches involve ordering things and sitting around anxiously awaiting their arrival. Some push button switchplates, handles for the faucet (yes, the sink does work, more on that later) and so on. In the mean time I thought I'd share the things we are working on. First up, as you may have noticed we don't have a vanity in this bathroom and our closet is now a shower so we needed a cabinet of some sort to put on the wall across from the sink, toilet and tub. I wanted something like this beautiful hunka cabinet from Project Nest. Glass doors, lots of storage. Bee-you-tee-full!

I craigslisted the crud out of it to no avail. And as much as I would love to drop a few hundred or even a cool thousand on something already ready already like this one from Restoration Hardware, I just couldn't do it. So one day, I spot this okay-ish cabinet at the DAV for $150.

Excuse the cell phone picture. Also excuse that dude that's all, "Hey, you can't take pictures in the DAV!" or something like that. Idk, he looks concerned. Anywho, it had the basic look. One problem:

It was a TV cabinet.

Whatever.

It was the shape I wanted, it had good bones and it seemed workable. So, we bought it and lugged it up the stairs (it was heav-to-the-eeeeeeee!) only to find that it was just a few inches too deep and with that huge trim up top it seemed a little severe. Conan got to work immediately, tearing off the trim on top and my handy-dandy dad ripped about 6 inches off the back and replaced it with beadboard. As for the glass doors I wanted, this past weekend we used the niftiest tool known to man, the SoniCrafter, to remove the middle portions

What we were left with, after a little sanding was this:

My dad also routered the back of the cabinet doors so we could slip in a piece of glass once they've been painted. I know it looks a little worse for the wear now but once we've added some new trim to the top, some shelves and paint it will be exactly what I wanted and at a price I feel good about. I can't wait until it's all done so I can show you guys the finished product.

In other news, we finished wiring the lighting fixtures that we took from the office and I just got over myself and went and got some fairly descent shades from Lowe's. They're simple, they work, so there. The lighting's bad in this picture but in reality, the light they give off is the perfect glow for taking a bath.

Speaking of bath. Who's that gremlin in ours? 

It's Maggie! She's been jealous of all this bathtime attention Shorty's been gettin' so she decided to do a little improv photo shoot of her own. Look at that vogue. Dangerous!

 

 

Like I mentioned earlier, that weird sink we bought off Craigslist is actually hooked up and working! I'll post about it next along with a video of it in action since it's just too weird to explain.

Oh, and...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Shorty Takes a Bath

Hey, I heard you guys were bored and maybe a little tired and maybe a little sad so I made you this:

I hope you like it.
I know Shorty did.  Music: Anectdote by Ambulance LTDcovered by Alex Herron

In With the Old

Took some pictures for something very special today. Eeeek! So excited! Can't wait to share!

In other news,

We now have a working

shower

tub

and toilet

The sink is a work in progress but hey, three out of four ain't bad. Ain't bad at all.

The toilet that was in the bathroom previously matched the sink that was in there and was just a little too...Grecian column inspired for our taste so we swapped it for the more simple, plain one downstairs. Also...

Shortly after our "Which lightbulb poll" was closed, I made the executive decision to "pull a Katherine" and change the light fixtures entirely. I know what you're thinking. "But you worked so hard to get those porcelain light fixtures in the first place! You are crazy!" But hear me out. They were a different color (almost gray) than the rest of the porcelain in the room and frankly, this room has enough gray in it already.

I said it.

So we looked and looked for something but they were all "too chrome" or "too modern" and then a couple of nights ago, we were sitting in the office and Conan noticed me staring at these sconces that had been in there since we moved in (and probably 90 years before that) and said, "You could always use those." I laughed at him and then the next day, what did I do? I took them down and put them in the bathroom. I love them. They're perfect. They make the whole room look better and they compliment the greenish color of the beadboard paint perfectly. Also, they were already in the house, so we didn't have to go out and buy anything. They need a little cleaning up (but not too much) and they need to actually be wired but then we're in business.

Now, what kind of shades....

: )



Art and Escutcheons

A few things that happened around these parts since we last spoke:

In the search for a slide photo to blow up and put above the tub a la this, I found this one which I instantly fell in love with and had Conan print. It now sits on the mantle, which if you're keeping track is very far from the bathroom. Whatever. It's adorable.

We were also lucky enough to find some shower handles that ACTUALLY WORKED! I know I didn't detail this process on the blog but let's just say, thanks to some really knowledgeable young men at Hupp Hardware we found exactly what we needed and went from these:

To these:

The part we were having trouble with was the escutcheon. The vintage ones I picked up at Architectural Salvage for $5 each were too long and had no way to hold onto the wall. We replaced the original stems and still no luck. Finally, we went to Hupp Hardware and wouldn't you know, they had these perfect escutcheons for $7 each and they worked like a charm. The handles are from our basement shower so they came with the house.

Today we're going to attempt to finish hooking up the sink which should be interesting. Wish us luck!



All of the Lights

So, as we work tirelessly to get our wierd sink to do what a sink is supposed to do I thought I would get a little reader input about something.

Remember our bathroom light sconces? The ones that are supposed to go on either side of our mirror?

If you haven't committed all of our blog posts to memory, here they are (and shame on you!):

Well, I have looked the whole interweb over and no where can I find any evidence that these are supposed to have some sort of glass shades (to cover the bulb). So it looks like the bulbs are going to be exposed. We started putting them up last night and I'd like to order the bulbs soon so we can start using those puppies! I have narrowed it down to two options but just can't decide.

Option 1: Rejuvenation

It's 25 watts which would be nice since there will be two and according to the website, it's as close as you can get to the bulbs that were meant for these fixtures. Huzzah! Historical accuracy!

Option 2: Schoolhouse Electric

It's also the equivalent of about 19-22 watts but it eats energy and at $19 each, it's not as cheap as old roundy up there. But on the plus side, LOOK AT IT!

So, we want to know what you guys think! Just click one of those buttons down there and we'll get to orderin'!

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